Death toll hits six as another Congo fever patient dies

Afghan national transported from Kabul loses battle to deadly disease at AKUH 

Karachi 

Congo fever claimed another life in the city when a 49-year old man from Afghanistan succumbed to the deadly viral disease at the Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH) on Sunday, health officials and family of the deceased said on Monday.

Salamuddin Amir Muhammad had been brought from Kabul by road and admitted to the private hospital on August 21, Naseer Ahmed, a nephew of the victim, told The News.

His family members said he was not an animal trader, but he used to purchase cattle for personal consumption and would slaughter them himself, and that could have been the reason why he caught deadly fever.

Zafar Mehdi, an official of the Sindh health department, confirmed the death of a person due to Congo fever at the AKUH, but he said were still collecting more information about the patient and how he contracted the disease.

The fatality occurred amid deaths of dozens of sacrificial animals in mysterious circumstances at the cattle market set up along Super Highway, feeding an environment of fear that has gripped sellers. 

Concerns depended about the possibility of an epidemic of the tick-born viral infection on Monday, which saw a fall in the number of potential buyers at the market where traders said around 120 animals had died in mysterious circumstances over the past few days.

However, Naveed Baig, an organiser of the cattle market, claimed that no deaths of animals occurred due to Congo virus or any other disease at the market, saying the last person who died due to the fever was doing business in the cattle market of Malir, not along the Super Highway.

With the Afghan national’s death, the number of fatalities from Congo Crimean Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF) in the city reached six. 

On August 19, Allah Ditta, a 22-year-old animal trader from Bahawalpur, had died of the disease at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre. On August 11, a 65-year-old man died of CCHF at a private hospital. The Sindh government’s focal person confirmed the death of Abdul Hakeem, who hailed from Afghanistan and had been under treatment at the hospital. On July 30, a senior registrar of Bahawal Victoria Hospital had died last month in Karachi after he treated a patient in Bahawalpur without taking any precautionary measures.

According to experts, Congo fever is caused by a virus that is found in a tick, which lives on cattle, and when a person comes into contact with an infected animal or the tick, he or she is infected.

CCHF is an extremely lethal with an over 50 percent mortality rate and hardly any patient survives due to serious complications it caused, the experts said, adding that the disease was highly contagious and, in most cases, doctors and paramedics treating the patient also contracted the virus and died.

Despite the hue and cry raised by media and organisations of doctors, including the Pakistan Islamic Medical Association (PIMA), no arrangements have been made by the provincial livestock department for carrying out inspections of cattle heads being brought to the market.

The staff deployed at the market only count cattle heads and receive the money before allowing them to enter the facility, creating a pool of infected animals on the boundary of Karachi, experts said.

“Every year, dozens of patients are infected by the Congo virus before Eidul Azha as infected animals from Afghanistan and border areas of Balochistan are brought to Karachi without any inspection and those coming into their contact get the infection. There is an urgent to inspect the cattle being brought to Karachi and spray them with insecticides and germicides to protect citizens,” said Dr Atif Hafeez, PIMA Karachi president, said.